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“We live in a culture…that is preoccupied with money. We respect people who have it and write whole television series about how they make it and spend it. While church members hear one sermon a week on average, they are exposed to about sixteen hundred commercials every day, on billboards and bus seats, in
newspapers and magazines, on matchbooks and clothes with designer and product logos, on radio and television, each offering advice on how to spend their money. What is the church’s responsibility for guiding them through this cacophony of opportunities?” (John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Behind the Stained Glass Windows)
Jesus was clear on the danger of stuff, be it money or material possessions generally, to spiritual well-being and preparedness for the life evaluation after leaving this world. Matthew 12.24-27 reads: Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done."
Spirituality cannot be a just-other-worldly matter. Jesus, as well as many great spiritual leaders across religions and cultures, teaches us that our relationship to and use of material things, including money, has eternal implications.
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spirtual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net .
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
The People of the
United Methodist Church
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